Spirit Voyage

Maintain a straight spine, sitting in Easy Pose or a chair.

Keep your head level, not tipped up or down.

Open the mouth and form an “O” shape with the lips. It may help to slightly pucker the lips.

Extend the tip of the tongue past the lips, and curl the tongue lengthwise into a straw shape.

Inhale slowly and deeply through the rolled tongue, filling the lungs completely (as in Long Deep Breathing).

Exhale slowly and fully through the nostrils.

Closed. If practicing Sitalee Praanayam as part of Kundalini Yoga, the eyes should be closed and rolled up towards the third eye point between the eyebrows.

 Exhale through the nostrils, and then resume normal breathing through the nose.

Sitalee Pranayama is cooling, and benefits the kidneys and adrenals.

Both Yogi Bhajan and B.K.S. Iyengar taught that Sitalee Pranayama can be used to reduce fevers and to aid digestion, and cleanse the spleen and liver.   

The tongue can be pulled back into the mouth and the lips closed after each inhalation.

Do the breath slowly and calmly, so that the passage of air through the tongue and nostrils makes no noise. Yogi Bhajan said that there should be no whistling sound, and the breath is so calm and slow that dogs are unable to smell it.

Initially there may be a bitter taste on the tongue, but in time the bitterness will diminish and shift to a sweet taste. When the taste becomes sweet, Yoga Bhajan said that all internal sickness has been overcome.

As with any breathing practice, if you become dizzy or lightheaded stop the pranayama and resume natural breathing.